The One and Only Time
by Jenefur
Summary: This was a mistake. She shouldn't have come here.


Disclaimer: Watchmen and all related Watchmen related items/branding do not belong to me.

* * *

She shouldn't have come here.

It was reckless, risky, and, above all, extremely dangerous.

But if there was one thing that people could hold Sally Jupiter to, it was that she never backed away from something because of a little danger.

It is one-thirty in the morning and she is in the elevator of a high-rise apartment building. She should be at home. The only reason she even knew how to get here was from prying it out of Hollis after he let it slip that the Comedian was in town. She didn't even have to try to sneak out; her husband was long asleep.

As she exited the elevator and walked down the unfamiliar corridor, she thought that her surroundings didn't fit him at all. Everything in this hallway was too clean: neat and proper, prim and polished. The hallway decor was all in place and each door she walked past had gleaming, golden numbers. The wallpaper color was much too light and the lighting in the corridor was far brighter than it should have been. Long ago, when she was younger and much more naïve about how the world worked, she had thoughts about where he lived and had visions of twisted alleys and smoky bars, with uncouth women and easy smiles. 'This,' she thought as she arrived at her destination, head held high as she turned to face his door, 'this doesn't fit him at all.'

As she faced his apartment door, she raised her hand, almost touching the hard, wood surface, before she stopped.

She shouldn't have come here. She hadn't knocked yet, she still had plenty to gather herself, leave, and go back to the sleeping husband she left at home. This was a bad idea, an impulsive one. It wasn't going to end well. Nothing with him involved ever ended well.

_Remember what he almost did last time. _

She shouldn't have come here. But despite this thought, she raised her hand, and gently rapped it against the surface of the door.

For a while, there was nothing, just the sound of her breathing alone in a quiet, much too bright hallway.

'Maybe he's not here', she thought intertwining her hands, 'maybe Hollis heard wrong, and his appearance was just a big stunt, a laugh for the media and politicians to eat up. Besides, Lord knows how far he'll go to make a _joke_-'

And then suddenly, he was there, standing in a thick, brown robe, looking down at her with an aggravated expression.

'He looks the same,' she thought as she watched his expression go from hazed anger, to shock, before settling on mild confusion, with a twinge of something she couldn't name underneath. His face hadn't changed much; there was more scarring, more wear and tear from use, but if anything she thought it made him look more distinguished. He looked bigger, in his arms and chest. 'He looks good', she thought, as she looked back at his face, her pensive eyes meeting his. 'Really good'

She shouldn't have come here.

"Eddie", she said, a coy smile settling on her face. It was her default expression, a flirty look she pulled everyday when she was out in public. She didn't know why she felt so nervous.

He was silent for a moment, his eyes staring hard at her face, unblinking. Then his mouth slowly twisted into the cocky smile she had come to know him for. She felt her heart start to thump faster in her chest and made herself relax.

_You're not children anymore, Sally. _

"Sal" he said, casually folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the frame of the door. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"Heard you were in town," she said shrugging, keeping her face relaxed, her voice even.

"Did 'ya now…and who'd you hear that from?" he asked, his eyes lazily scanning over her frame before coming back to meet her eyes. The thumping in her chest seemed to grow louder to her ears and Sally felt as though he could hear it echoing through the upper class, much-to-neat hallway.

"Hollis"

"Pssh" he sputtered loudly, leaning further into side of the door frame, his face curling into an unpleasant sneer. "You still hangin' around bird boy? That guy, always in everybody's business…"

"Eddie", she said, her voice reprimanding, though the flirty smile she had remained on her face. "Hollis is a good man… There's no need to be jealous."

His eyes flicked sharply back to hers.

She was playing in dangerous waters. This wasn't like the stunts she did for the press, the runs she did in costume under the dark of night. This was deadlier; all mind games and unspoken words.

The florescent lighting in the hallway was bright and blinding around her. She felt dizzy.

_She shouldn't have come here._

His eyes stayed on hers, steady and hard as he stood to his full height. He was easily a head taller than her, and even with her heels, she felt small. As he looked down at her, she felt as though she was being pushed into a corner, encompassed by him, despite standing in the wide-open hallway. She felt, as he looked down at her, his expression holding an emotion she couldn't identify, as though she was being consumed by him. But with Eddie, she had always felt like that.

"Sally—"

"So, are you going to invite me in?" she interrupted him, her voice still light, still flirty.

He looked down at her, holding his expression, before he stepped to the side of his door, allowing her entrance.

_You can still leave_, a voice in her mind said to her. The voice sounded strangely like Eddie. _You don't have to do this. _

She entered his apartment and he closed the door quietly behind her.

The apartment looked utterly different from the hallway she had just been in. Everything about it was dark: dark wood, dark furniture, dark walls.

'This,' she thought, 'this is more like him.'

As she walked by large oak bar table, she found that all the liquor that were lined behind it were dark as well. Everything in this apartment was dark.

Except one thing.

In the corner of the room, next to a large dark (dark, dark, exceedingly_ dark) _television stand hung a well-light picture frame.

Sally walked closer to it, eyes widening as she saw its image.

It was her, face with the same smile she has used to greet Eddie with, posed in a flirtatious manner, hands arched out, coyly removing a glove, eyes asking the viewer silently to help her.

"Oh Eddie," she said turning back to look at him. He was strangely silent through this whole ordeal and when she turned to look at him, he held the same unreadable expression he had when she first asked to enter the apartment. He was far from her, closer to the door and seemed to be intentionally keeping his distance.

She turned back to the photograph, her expression whimsical as she raised a hand to touch it.

"I remember taking this," she said, a slight smile on her face, " it was one of my first shoots. This was the first shot we took. Donny said he'd never had the pleasure of photographing someone as much as me."

"Sally." His voice brought her out of her recollections, but she continued, turning brightly to him, the only lightness in his dark, hard room.

"You know Edmund Taylor wants to make a movie about me," she said eyes glistening as she walked towards him. "Larry doesn't think it's a good idea, but I can't say that I wouldn't mind—"

"Sally" His voice ran through the apartment again, quieting her. She was in front of him now, almost touching, almost crossing the line, but not quite.

He was still looking at with that nameless expression and she felt her own smile slide from her face.

She was no longer playing in dangerous waters. Now, she was in the shark's cove, floating silently, waiting to be devoured.

Eddie's eyes shifted over the contours of her face before coming back to her eyes.

"Sally, why are you here?"

The pounding she felt in her heart came back louder than before, so loud she felt like the very sound of it was suffocating her.

She shouldn't have come here.

_You can still leave_, the voice rang again, _nothings happened yet._ _You can leave, go home, crawl back in bed with your husband and forget this ever happened._

The moonlight rays were reflecting from his barren, open windows and bounced off of his furniture, creating shadows and lines on his face that weren't there. Eddie, despite all the years, still looked achingly young. Devastatingly, heartbreakingly _young_.

_He has your picture on his wall. _

And with that final thought, Sally felt her resolve break.

She kissed him then, hard, aggressively, pulling his face down to meet hers, feet lifting up, trying to get closer to him. And he kissed back, mouth hot and ready, expecting her as his hands grasped her body.

When she did this with her husband, it was different. It was soft and simple, with gentle caresses and traditional moves. As a young girl, she knew her girlhood crushes to feel like butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. This was different. Being with Eddie (she bit back a moan when his tongue moved across hers) was like having swarms of bees in her body, hot and hard all at once.

'It doesn't mean anything', she thought as she was backed into a wall, back arching as he moved his kisses down her neck, 'It doesn't mean anything, it doesn't matter, God please don't let me _care.'_

She moved his mouth back to hers and bit his lip lower lip hard as he lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist and thrust himself into her sex. Eddie's hands were moving everywhere, touching and retouching, greedily taking in whatever he could.

She moved her hands to the lower edges of his shirt, frantically pulling, needing to feel skin, as he worked on undoing the buttons of her blouse. Shirts removed, he grasped a hold of her bra, unclasped it with the skill of a man who had done it 1000 times before, and latched onto her breast.

She let out a low moan, fingers grasping onto his hair as he nibbled and sucked on her teat. Her moans became louder, rougher as free hands traveled southward, hiking her skirt and removing her underwear, fingers briefly touching outer lips before plunging inside. Faster and faster they moved as her cries became louder, head thrown back in pleasure as the sensations rocked her body.

Just as she was about to reach her peak, the fingers left and his mouth moved upward, kissing and biting her collarbone, neck, jaw line, before settling back on her lips. Their mouths opened against each other, tongues battling, as she felt him settle hard against her.

"Now," Sally said, desperately grasping at his pants, undoing the button and zipper in one easy motion, hips already starting to rock against his. He hiked her up further onto the wall, one hand pinning her hands over her head, the other removing himself from his pants. He looked at her then, his eyes filled with desire, as she felt him position himself at her entrance. His forehead leaned against hers as he thrust in roughly, eliciting loud moans from both of them as he stilled.

With a hand still keeping hers over her head, his free hand moved to grasp her hip as he plunged in, pounding over and over, grasping her hip so she could meet him half way.

She rocked frantically against him, hands clenching as her wrists strained against his grasp, his name escaping from her lips over and over again. He own head was positioned next to her ear, and she could hear grunts and groans escaping from him as he rocked into her harder.

"Hold onto me," Eddie said finally releasing the hands held above her head and moving it to join its brother at her hips. She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, bringing his head to her neck, as she looked up, panting heavily as the rocking got faster.

"Eddie!" she cried out feeling herself come undone, the bees in her stomach circulating through the rest of her body as her orgasm shook her.

"Fuck, Sally," Eddie grunted as he felt her clench down on him, thrusting faster before he too tensed up and released, trusting into her 3 more times before slouching against her.

For a few minutes, there was no noise besides their collective breathing in the dark, dark apartment. Sally closed her eyes, feeling Eddie's mouth making trails from her collarbone to her neck, as she moved her hand to scrape the back of his neck.

The first time they had sex that night she told herself it didn't matter.

So, she did it a second time, to prove that it didn't matter, that it meant nothing, and that she could walk away from this feeling no different from when she first arrived.

The third time they had sex that night, she did it because she was angry with him for making her doubt that this meant nothing, for making her doubt herself at all.

The fourth time they had sex that night, she thought she was in love with him. She did it a fifth to show herself that she wasn't.

The sixth and last time she had sex with Eddie Blake that night, she was laying on silk black sheets in his bedroom. After it was over and both their needs had been sated, she turned to her side, his arm draped around her body. She held her hand out and looked at the wedding ring that sat on her finger, watching the diamond flicker back and forth as she shifted her hand.

It was almost morning. She could see the run starting to peak into the room through the large barren windows. Larry would be up in a few hours. She could almost see him now, draped along their shared bed, not even noticing that she wasn't laying next to him. She put her hand down and sighed, moving her gaze to bedside table. On the table, a single clock sat, along with a lighter. She smiled faintly at the sight of the lighter, remembering seeing Eddie with one many times in their Minutemen days. She picked it up and turned it over and was slightly thrown back to what she saw. It was her. The same photo that was placed in the living room, graced the cover of his lighter. She moved up slightly, examining the rest of room. The room itself matched the rest of the house, in style and color. Her eyes scanned across to the adjacent drawer and stopped at another picture, sitting singularly onto the surface of drawer. It was a another picture of her, this time a headshot, her face smiling softly at nothing.

_He has a picture of you in his bedroom._

The sun was beginning to peak higher into the sky and rays were shinning into the room. The once dark decor of Eddie Blake's apartment now seemed much lighter, almost as light as the florescent lighting in the hallways of the apartment building.

_He has a picture of you on his lighter._

She tensed a bit as she felt Eddie slowly begin to wake, the grip of his arm around her body tightening as it attempted to pull her closer.

_He has a picture of you in his living room._

Larry would be waking up soon and if he found out she was missing, he would want her to give him explanations that she didn't have for why she wasn't home.

_He loves you. _

She needed to leave.

As soon as the thought entered her mind she sprang up, ignoring the confused groan she got from the man laying next to her. Hastily, she ran through the apartment, grabbing whatever clothes she could find and throwing them on. As she slipped on the skirt she had worn the night before over her hips, she heard Eddie get up and saw him lean against the frame of his bedroom door, watching her as she situated herself.

He didn't say anything. He stood there, simply watching, his face holding the same expression he held when she first entered his apartment.

As if compelled by his silence, Sally began to talk.

"This was a mistake," she said, fumbling with the remaining buttons of her blouse, "I have a husband and a career, and a whole life, and I can't just… I can't, Eddie. This can't happen again. This shouldn't have happened at all."

She finished with the last button and turned to look at him. He still hadn't said anything and remained in his position by the doorway, still looking at her with that unknown expression.

So she said it again, louder this time.

"Eddie, this was a mistake."

She watched him from her position across the room. He was wearing the brown robe he had worn when she arrived at his door. In the light of the incoming day, the rays of sun reflected off of his furniture. And even in the stark lightness of the day, Eddie still seemed so young.

"Sally."

He said her name. That was all he said and she felt her heart drop. If he said anything else, she wouldn't be able to do it. If he said anything else, she wouldn't want to do it. If he said what she thought he would say, she wouldn't be able to leave.

_Larry's going to wake up soon. _

The thought ran in her mind as she looked at Eddie Blake, his expression the same indiscernible one from the night before.

He looked so young. But she wasn't a child anymore and she needed to be responsible. So she did the adult thing.

She left.

As she exited the apartment building and entered a waiting taxi, she looked up. She immediately was able to spot the apartment building she had just exited and if she closed her eyes, she could make out its entire layout.

As she sat in the backseat the taxi, she opened a small pocket mirror from her purse and examined herself, making sure all everything about her was in order. It was close to 6 and she still had a few hours before Larry would be rising from their bed.

She closed her eyes and for a brief moment, she could feel Eddie on her skin, feel his lips on her neck.

The single, whispered "Sally" still murmured in her ear.

She opened her eyes, closed her mirror, and looked forward.

She shouldn't have come here.


End file.
